WTOB-FM

WTOB-FM, also known as "Activa 103.9", is a Regional Mexican radio station located in Greenville, South Carolina. The station is licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to the town of Easley and broadcasts on 103.9 FM with an effective radiated power of 6,000 watts. It is locally programmed and the only FM Spanish radio station in Upstate South Carolina.

History

103.9 FM signed on in 1964 as WELP-FM in Easley, simulcasting much of their sister station, WELP/1360. By the early 1980s, WELP-FM's tower was moved to a new location and the station's power was increased from 2.3 kW to 3 kW in order to get a better signal into nearby Greenville. The station at the time was known as WTLT "Lite 104", sporting a Light Adult Contemporary format.

Both WTLT and WELP were sold to new ownership by 1987. In December of that year, WTLT changed to Urban Contemporary as WLWZ, adopting the "Z-104" nickname. After two months of cold segues and promos, a new airstaff debuted in February 1988, consisting of Greg Darden (from KRNB/Memphis, Tennessee) for mornings, Maxx Myrick (from WCIN: Cincinnati, Ohio) for middays as well as programming duties, Dave Hendricks (a holdover from the station's previous format) for afternoons, Tori Turner (also from WCIN) for nights as well as the station's music director, and "Brother" Bill Prater (from WJKC/Christiansted, U.S. Virgin Islands) for overnights. Ratings increased almost overnight from a 1.1 to a 9.4, despite having a limited signal that covered half of the Greenville-Spartanburg radio market.^[2]

In 1989, the Voyager broadcasting group purchased the radio station, and utilized Don Kelly & JC Floyd as consultants. Wayne Walker (from WFXC, also known as "FOXY107" in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina & WHYZ Greenville, South Carolina, was brought in as Program Director & Operations Manager, and the station was renamed MUSIC POWER Z-104. The successful lineup for a number of years included "Smooth Talker" Wayne Walker & Vince Davis on the Z-104 Wake-Up Patrol, also Rocky Valentine, Al Sullystone, Janice Henderson and Action Jackson.

In January 1993, WLWZ added a simulcast partner as 103.3 FM from nearby Greer signed on, becoming WLYZ, which helped the station to be heard in the Spartanburg part of the market. By that time, both stations were billed as "Double Z", but continued with the Urban format. This made the station receivable along Interstate 85 almost from the North Carolina to Georgia line on both 103s.

Emerald City Broadcasting purchased WWMM/107.3 in 1994 and added an urban format which became a direct competitor. WWMM was relaunched as WJMZ "107.3 Jamz". Emerald City purchased Double Z in 1994, and began programming Double Z with an Urban AC/Oldies format in order to better co-exist with 107.3. Eventually the Double Z 103 simulcast became Alternative rock "103-X" with 103.3 picking up the WXWZ call sign and 103.9 picking up the 'WXWX call sign in early 1995. All the Double Z Urban staff was fired with the exception of Action Jackson and Wayne Walker who did a short stint as midday personality on WJMZ until March 1995. Action Jackson continued to do weekends and fill-ins on WJMZ until March 1996. 103-X was the first Alternative Rock station in the market, but the same signal problems that the station(s) had remained, even with the addition of 103.3.

On January 1, 1996, 103-X added Howard Stern's radio show for mornings, but was faced with a backlash from both radio listeners and advertisers that lasted for weeks. During that time, Emerald City decided to sell out to Sinclair, and 103-X changed formats to Oldies in February 1996 after the flip of WFBC-FM to top-40. The call letters WOLI (103.9) and WOLT (103.3) were added a few months later. The station(s) were on satellite for the next few years and in late 1999, a local airstaff was finally added.

In November 2000, the station jumped on the '80s Oldies bandwagon that was going on at the time, becoming "Star 103", but retained the call letters for both stations. The syndicated Bob & Sheri radio show was added as well as a new airstaff. Over time, the station slowly evolved toward Classic Hits, but kept the Star 103 handle. In late 2003, the station changed its format to a Contemporary Christian/ Country hybrid as "The Walk". In 2005, Entercom sold WOLT-FM/103.3, WOLI-FM/103.9, & WSPA/910 to Davidson Media Group, while retaining "The Walk" and placing it on its newly acquired 106.3 WGVC-FM signal, which lasted a little over a year until the unsuccessful format was dropped.

WOLI-FM originally simulcasted WOLI/910 starting in October 2005. However, when WNOW-FM, then located in Gaffney, South Carolina began airing much of the same programming in 2007, WOLI began playing Spanish Religious programming, like sister station WBZK in Charlotte. The 910 simulcast was intended to better cover Spartanburg with the programming heard on 103.9, which primarily covers the Greenville area. After a 3 month stint as black gospel, WOLI is now branded as YAHOO! Sports Radio 910.

Davidson Media sold WOLI-FM and eleven other stations to Mahan Janbakhsh's TBLC Holdings, LLC effective November 5, 2015, at a purchase price of $3.5 million.

The station changed its call sign to WTOB on December 9, 2015, and to WTOB-FM on November 22, 2016.

References

External links

• Query the FCC's FM station database for WTOB
• Radio-Locator information on WTOB
• Query Nielsen Audio's FM station database for WTOB